Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Farmville

I recently came across this article that talks about the popularity of social games, especially the ones of Facebook like Farmville, Mafia wars etc. I know that almost everybody has played or knows someone who has played these games. Apparently 65million users play these games each month. Now, I know that most of us are tired of seeing Farmville updates pop up on our 'Recent news' page, just because one of our contacts has been playing it. I have been a part of many a conversation in which we all have complained about the stupidity of maintaining a virtual farm. But, the other day this got me thinking- which is never good - that what if all technology ended tomorrow. What if, white collar jobs as we know them stopped existing. What if we had to go back to a world where agriculture was the main form of sustenance. How many of us know how to plant a crop? Heck, how many of us even know what you can find on a farm. Well, the players of Farmville sure do! Virtual playing can nver be compared to a real world scenario, but if we had to go back to living on the land, I am hoping that these Farmville players can tell us what crops to grow when and what fertilizers to use and when to water the grains. Weak as it may sound, atleast this social game reminds the next generation that 'farms' were once the main source of family income. And thanks to Farmville, we know for sure that individual farms will not go extinct for a while, atleast not in the virtual world.

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